Some time ago, in the early 1990s, like nearly every role-player, I decided to write the game, (i) the one that would work and (ii) that I not only wanted but needed to play.

A few years later, I grabbed a clue and realized that publishing it myself was the only imaginable way to publish it at all.

I originally planned to keep the project limited to on-line PDF sales, envisioning a series of supplements and an audience of perhaps a thousand people. When I decided to release a print copy, I expected to sell perhaps 500 to store distribution, with maybe a quarter of that actually going to customers, as a one-time thing to enjoy having “published an RPG book.” The supplements were to remain in PDF form.

Little did I know that the game itself would be far more like one of the demons it describes, and that the binding contract did not always tip in my favor.